


The Beginning of the End

by Freezeurbrain



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Be More Quarantine Challenge, Character Death, Post-Canon, Post-Squip, Zombie AU, apocalypse au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:42:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23304091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Freezeurbrain/pseuds/Freezeurbrain
Summary: The zombie apocalypse has begun, and, just Christine’s luck, it’s decided to start right in her hometown.Round One of Be More Quarantine!
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9





	The Beginning of the End

Christine had _thought_ her year couldn’t get any weirder after the incident at the school play. Yet here she was, in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, teaming up with her ex-boyfriend, the school gossip, and a loner kid in headphones. If this was a movie, there would definitely be a freeze frame, a record scratch, and a voiceover saying, “ _Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got in this situation. Well, let’s go back to the beginning_.” In Christine’s case, the beginning would have been when she was alone backstage, practicing for the spring musical auditions.

***

Technically, Christine wasn’t supposed to be wearing the red cape. It wasn’t like she’d purposefully snooped around looking for it, though. She’d simply happened across it while looking for a suitable place to practice her audition song. She’d walked into the empty girls’ dressing room, and it had been lying across a table. Clearly, it had been left there by some careless student- maybe someone working on the costume department. Christine was a theatre kid- she knew the golden rule of not touching props that weren’t yours. But the show hadn’t even started yet. Besides, if she put it back right where she found it after she was finished, no one would even know. And she _was_ trying out with a cut of “I Know Things Now” from Into the Woods. Maybe it would help her _channel the character_ , as her drama teacher had always put it.

With her conscience firmly settled, Christine felt okay with putting on the red cloak. It was longer than she’d expected, reaching down to her ankles and brushing the floor as she moved. Or maybe Christine was just short. It didn’t matter to Christine as she pulled out her phone and started up the instrumental track to her song. Unfortunately for Christine, she’d barely gotten through the first line when her singing was interrupted by someone frantically pounding on the door.

“Help!”

Christine stopped in her tracks. The music kept on playing, but Christine wasn’t singing along with it. She stood in shocked silence, staring at the jiggling doorknob and listening to the clanging and cries for help. It sounded like a boy. 

“Oh my God, please, let me in!” When the boy on the other side of the door spoke, the “s” in _please_ sounded more like a “th”. Christine could only think of one person in the school with a lisp...

 _Oh my God, it’s Rich Goranski_.

With the music still playing, its chipper tune a dark contrast to what was happening, Christine raced over to the door and opened it. “Rich? What’s going-“ 

That was all she had time to get out before Rich darted into the room like he had a ghost at his heels. “Shut the door. Quick.” 

“What-“

“Just shut the door!” Rich’s panicked expression and heavy breathing was enough to make Christine do as he said.

“Calm down!” Christine’s eyes widened as she took in Rich’s clearly distressed state- his forehead was sweaty, his face was red, and, perhaps most concerningly, there was a large, bloody wound on his left forearm. “Rich, what _happened_ to you?” 

“I can’t even...” Rich ran his hands through his hair, still panting like a sprinter who had just finished a race. “Oh my God. She looked _terrible_.” 

“Who? Who looked terrible?”

“Brooke.” Rich’s voice broke a little as he said the name, and he covered his mouth with his left hand. “I don’t even know how to describe it. She was just...”

“What happened, Rich?” Christine asked, softly, like Rich was a deer she had to avoid spooking. 

“Jake and I were just... we were just hanging out behind the school. Goofing off, you know. And then all of the sudden, Brooke comes up to us. She was walking really weird- she was almost shambling. And I said ‘Hi, Brooke, how are you’ and then...” Rich took a shaky inhale. “Then...”

“Then what?” Christine asked.

“She _bit me_.” Rich’s body shook a little as he spoke. “Right there, on my arm.”

Christine examined the wound on Rich’s arm. Now that she was closer, she could clearly make out the shape of teeth marks in the skin. But these were different- whatever Brooke had done, it had actually broken Rich’s skin and drawn blood. And, more worryingly, the skin around the wound was grey. 

“Oh my gosh. Brooke did this?”

“Yeah, she-“ Rich’s speech was cut off by a slew of hacking coughs. 

“Rich?” Christine looked up, concerned. Rich didn’t answer, he only continued to cough. As Christine watched, horrified, the coughing soon turned to dry heaving. Rich turned around, his knees buckling. The only thing keeping him from falling to the floor was his arms, which were clinging to the dressing room counter. “Rich, are you okay?” 

As suddenly as he had begun, Rich stopped. He only sat there, breathing raggedly. 

Tentatively, Christine reached out for Rich. “Rich-“

She was cut off by Rich turning around and letting out a raspy scream. Christine jumped back at the sight of Rich’s face- the skin around his eyes had turned a pale grey, and Christine could see black veins running under his skin. Christine barely had time to register what she was seeing before Rich jumped at her, gnashing his teeth like some kind of animal.

“Rich, what-“ 

Christine’s only answer came in the form of a growl, and then Rich bit at Christine’s neck. He might have actually gotten her, too, if it weren’t for the cloak. Instead of her skin, Rich’s teeth only found fake red velvet. Christine used the moment to push Rich away from her. 

Rich stumbled back, hitting the counter with a rasping grunt. He glared at Christine and let out another inhuman growl before making a second lunge at her, except this time Christine dodged and the only thing Rich hit was a mirror on the opposite wall. The cheap mirror shattered, bits of glass falling onto the table below. Rich seemed dazed, blinking his eyes as if he was trying to process what had just happened. His hands, which had gone frighteningly pale, bled from small cuts inflicted by the broken glass. 

“Rich, what are you doing?”

The sound that came out of Rich’s mouth was half a hacking cough, and half a rasping scream. His muscles tensed as if he were preparing to attack her a third time. Before he could get the chance, Christine made a dash for the door. As she struggled to turn the doorknob, Rich grabbed towards her, clawing at her face like a wounded animal. Christine frantically looked around for something, anything, and her eyes settled on a decorative flower vase. 

_Something’s better than nothing_. 

Christine reached over, her hands just barely grasping the neck of the vase. With all the strength she could muster, she smashed the vase into the side of Rich’s head.

That did it. The ceramic shattered, and Rich let out a screech of pain as he fell to the ground. The noise was so... _human_ that Christine felt a pang of guilt, and she almost reached down again to see if Rich was okay. But then Rich looked up at her, eyes blazing with that primal fury, and Christine dashed out the door and shut it behind her, not looking back. 

***

Christine wasn’t even sure how long she’d been running for, or why she’d ended up in the Menlo Park Mall in the first place. She wasn’t even looking where she was going as she ran down the mall’s hallway, which was probably why she’d run into the boy in glasses and a red hoodie.

The boy jumped as he turned around to see who had run into him, his face looking like that of someone who desperately wanted to scream. He looked Christine up and down, as if studying her, and finally spoke.

“You’re not... one of them, are you?” 

“One of... them?”

“One of those... things!” The boy gestured to the glass doors at the end of the hallway. “Whatever they are.”

“What things?” Christine asked.

“Those people who’ve gone crazy!” The boy spoke as if Christine had asked him the answer to two plus two. “They’re attacking people and biting them!” 

“Look, I’m just as confused as you are.” Christine held up her hands. “I don’t know what’s going on. All I know is that I was trying to rehearse for the spring musical auditions, and the next thing I know, I’m being attacked by Rich Goranski.” 

“You know Rich Goranski?” The boy’s eyes widened suddenly. “You’re Christine Canigula.” 

“You go to Middleborough?” Christine couldn’t hide her shock. She could never recall seeing this kid in the hallway or any of her classes. Which she felt bad about immediately. 

“My best friend-“ The boy shook his head. “Never mind. I’m Michael Mell.” 

“Pleasure.” 

“Rich?” Another voice, this one strangely familiar, rang out from behind Christine. Sure enough, when she turned around, she was looking up at Jake Dillinger, her ex-boyfriend. Could this day get any more strange? 

“Jake? What are you-“

“Christine, did you see Rich?” Jake didn’t seem preoccupied with the fact that he had just run into his ex-girlfriend in the middle of the deserted mall. 

“Yes, I saw Rich!” Christine didn’t intend to yell at Jake, but that was how it came out. “He tried to kill me!” 

“Kill you?” Jake’s eyes widened. 

“His skin was all grey, and he was gnashing his teeth at me... he came in telling me Brooke had bit him.” 

“Brooke came up and attacked us while we were hanging out.” Jake’s tone became more and more panicked as he spoke. “We both ran away.”

“Guys?” Michael cut Jake off, pointing to the doors at the end of the hallway. “I hate to break this up, but...”

Both Christine and Jake turned around to find a small crowd of those... those _things_ pounding on the glass. Christine could hear their screeches and growls. 

“Oh my God. Oh my God.” Jake’s eyes widened even more. “What do we do?” 

Christine looked around, pointing to a random shop. “There.” 

The shop in question turned out to be a sixties-themed diner called the Rocket Pop. It looked like a nice enough place, but that wasn’t what Christine was focused on as Jake slammed the door behind them, putting a chair in front of it for good measure. 

“What...” Jake was breathing heavily. “...the _hell_... is going on?!” 

“Jake?” An unknown female voice rang out from somewhere in the diner, and a girl stood up from behind the counter. Her hair was purple, pulled off of her face in space buns, and she clutched a cell phone to her chest like it was some kind of shield. She wore a pink button-up shirt and matching skirt with a nametag that said “ _Hi, my name is Jenna_ ”.

“Jenna?” Jake looked extra confused. “Why are you here?”

“I work here.” Jenna said, almost shyly. “I was getting dressed for my shift when I heard this noise from my coworker. When I went to check on her, she...” 

“Did she attack you?” Christine asked.

Jenna’s eyes widened. “Yes. She did.” 

“What happened?” 

“I locked her in the freezer.” Jenna looked down at her feet. “I tried to call the police, but it keeps saying the line is busy. And there’s no cell service either.” She held out her phone and showed the other three teenagers the screen- an Internet search. In the “Recently Searched” tab, there were puzzling searches such as “ _How to kill zombies_ ”, “ _How to do brain surgery_ ” and “ _How to make soup_ ”. 

“Why do you need to know how to make soup?” Jake asked, as if _that_ were the most surprising thing on the list. 

“I was just clicking random stuff trying to make it go through.” Jenna said. “But there’s no service anywhere. It’s like it all just went down.” 

“This is freaky.” Michael stepped back, as if he were processing everything. “This is _so_ damn freaky.” 

There was silence for a moment, until Jenna’s phone chimed. She looked down at it in surprise, and the noise drew everyone else to look up as well. 

“Look at this.” Jenna held out her phone again to show the other three what had just come up.

**WARNING**

**An incredibly dangerous virus has escaped contamination. The hearth is in Middleborough, New Jersey. Citizens are advised to stay indoors and away from large crowds. Virus is spread through bites from the infected, whose symptoms consist of greying skin, aggressive and violent behavior, and hacking coughs.**

“What does that mean?” Christine’s eyes widened.

“It means...” Michael’s voice trailed off for a moment. “It means we’re in the zombie apocalypse.”


End file.
